Met up with Marty Haught of Boulder Ruby fame yesterday at a Coffee shop in Longmont (the city in which both of us live); my objective for the meeting was to pick his brains on how to go from being a beginner and work towards becoming proficient in Ruby & Ruby on Rails. Got quite a bit of useful advice, and list of resources for self-learning from Marty in this regard.
I am listing the resources that Marty mentioned, a few that Ben Atkin had recommended a earlier, and a couple of resources I found on my own, with the hope that it might be useful for others as well. Here it goes:
- RailsGuides - with a very useful Getting Started with Rails guide.
- Railscasts - Weekly screencasts by Ryan Bates featuring tips and tricks with RoR
- Ruby Quiz - A weekly programming challenge for Ruby programmers
- Ruby Warrior - Game written - by Ryan Bates - in Ruby for learning Ruby and Artificial Intelligence
- Ruby Koans - A set of Koans to teach the Ruby language - by Jim Weirich
- Code Kata - Exercises for becoming a better programmer - by Dave Thomas
- PeepCode - Screencasts on various topics (Subscription)
- Vimcasts - Screencasts about Vim
- Screencasts from The Pragmatic Bookshelf : Among others there is free Screencast introducing GitHub
- RadiantCMS - Open Source Content Management System
- Screencasts from TeachMeToCode - there's a good one about Creating a Twitter Clone
- New Relic - For those interested in Performance management of Web applications.
- Heroku - Web hosting Ruby on Rails apps; can create an app on Heroku in less than 5 minutes
- HTMLDog - HTML & CSS Tutorials
- Working with GIT
A few well-formed words can have an amazing impact! I saw the below tweet from a friend earlier today, and that set off a chain of thought, answering some unanswered questions from long ago, and resulted in a concrete action making a small impact for a few people.
I am involved with micro-lending through Kiva for a couple of years now, and have been a believer in the concept of Micro-finance. Since starting to lend on Kiva, I have come across a few articles on the internet which question the benefits of Microfinance. While not going into the details of these articles, suffice it to say they did succeed in sowing a seed of doubt in my mind about the value of the loans I make. I have continued to revolve the initial money I put into Kiva within the same network by lending it to other entrepreneurs. A touch of skepticism - and even resignation - has accompanied these actions.
The comparison between Microfinance and Mortgage loans in the tweet dispelled whatever undistinguished doubts I had about Microfinance, and made me very clear about why I lend on Kiva :
I am fortunate on numerous counts in my life; I live a privileged life compared to the majority of the people in the world. Kiva - & Microfinance - is a way to provide an opportunity to a few people who wouldn't have got that opportunity otherwise.
Following the above epiphany, as soon as I got some time to spare, I logged on to Kiva, and added a few more loans to my portfolio.
I invite my friends to follow my example and make a difference for 'underprivileged micro-entrepreneurs' by lending on Kiva and/or United Prosperity. Thanks for reading this, and thanks for following up on my request!
So I am finally well-settled in Longmont, CO - with Internet Connectivity the last piece to fall in place on Saturday - and am getting around to document the 2000 mile road trip adventure!
First the basic details:
Vehicle : The Sturdy Road Warrior in the picture - 16 Foot Budget Truck, with a tow carrier for my Volkswagen Passat.
Distance traveled : 2032 miles (From renting the truck in Jersey City, NJ to returning the truck in Longmont, CO
Start date/time of the journey : Monday 28th June 10:00 PM EST
End date/time of the journey : Thursday 1st July 8:00 PM MST
Rest stop # 1 : 1.5 hour sleep on Tuesday Morning at Reynoldsville Rest Stop
Rest stop # 2 : Overnight Stay on Tuesday night as a guest of my friend Umasankar in Aurora, IL
Rest stop # 3 : Overnight stay on Wednesday night as a guest of my friend & Umasankar's brother - Bhaskar - in Topeka, Kansas
End Point : Reaching my friend Amar's place in Longmont, CO
- At the end of the trip, it seemed like a piece of cake. However, it was a nerve-wracking experience right from the get-go, and I was afraid something could go wrong at any minute during the trip.
- The only jarring note came when I went to return the truck - one of the wheels on the trailer had fallen off! It must have occurred during the last segment of my journey - the 200 mile drive from Colorado Welcome Center in Burlington, CO to Longmont, CO; I am guessing this because I had stopped at the welcome center, and had not noticed anything unusual. In any case, I have been truly lucky in that there were no incidents along the way, and everything went smoothly.
- The best thing about the road-trip turned out to be the awesome home-made food my friends treated me to, and ensure that I didn't have to go looking for food along the way. Given that I was hauling a car with a truck, I was apprehensive about going off the highway, and try my luck at finding a good restaurant with adequate parking space for my truck. Thanks to my friends generosity which included packing food for me for the next segment of the drive, it so happened that I had to eat out at a restaurant only once during the three days trip!
- Found out that the Truckers stop at rest areas over night, and occupy all the spots in the Truck parking zone, and even use up the shoulder leading up to and out of the rest area. Thought I would get to park in one of these spots and sleep peacefully, but no chance of that. Finally, would up sleeping fitfully for an hour or so in the Car parking zone at one rest area.
- Tolls on the Highways turned out to be a annoyance during the trip. Had a shocker when I checked in at Delaware Water Gap Toll Booth when the toll inspector told me it would be $13 for my truck+tow, while the toll for cars there was $0.75; I am guessing, he considered my truck to be a commercial vehicle, and added the extra toll for the tow vehicle. Expressways around Chicago put up a different kind of challenge in that the entrances to the freeway were not manned, thereby allowing only vehicles with M-Pass (automated payment cards). I lost at least an hour on Wednesday morning trying to find one manned freeway entrance.
- Given the trouble with tollways, I looked up alternative routes where possible. The I-76 / I-71 / US Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) in Ohio & Indiana helped me bypass the Ohio Turnpike / I-80 all the way through to Chicago. These alternate routes turned out to be very comfortable drives with hardly any stops, and little traffic. And these routes were offered better scenery than the Interstate, what with little towns popping up every once in a while, and the road invariably becoming the main street in that town.
- There is a World's Largest Truck Stop in Iowa; was glad to see it as it had ample parking space for buses and trucks.
- There is a place called Lebanon in Kansas; this place is considered to be the geographical center of continental United States. The Wikipedia entry for this place has this gem : "In 1918, the Coast and Geodetic Survey found this "center" by balancing on a point a cardboard cutout shaped like the U.S" I started out with the intention to visit this place on the last day, but dropped the idea after I lost around half an hour trying to get to the nearest gas station before I run out of gas.
- Route 24 in Kansas was a wonderful local alternative to the monotonous I-70. One of the highlights of the trip was Cawker City, KS which claimed (at the welcome sign outside town) that it was Home to the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Guess what? As I drove town, was pleasantly surprised to see they do have it displayed right next to the road!
At the end of the journey, I am appreciative of how fortunate I am to have been on this road trip and come out of it without any problems, and thankful of all my friends who made sure everything went well with this trip! And I realize I enjoy these kinds of cross country road trips - the third such trip I have done in US in the past 10 years. I should plan next such road trip in an other country/continent. 
One of the companies that made a presentation - and stood apart from others - at yesterday's Boulder New Tech Meetup was DuckDuckDeal. It is a company which provides consumers with the ability - through a smartphone (currently only on iPhone) app or the DuckDuckDeal web page - to receive exclusive offers from local merchants instantly.
Unlike the various coupon/deal sites already available, the key distinguishing feature here is that the merchants have the ability to post an ad-hoc offer with a limited time. This feature allows business establishments to figure out by trial and error which offers elicit best response, and thereby alter their offerings.
DuckDuckDeal has a huge potential for growth as it provides a simple mechanism for businesses of all sizes - especially in the service and food & beverage industry - to fine-tune their businesses with minimal expense. The company is currently operational only in Boulder, and are perfecting the business model before they expand to other areas.
I think DuckDuckDeal has the potential to be the next big thing. Google created an enormous money making machine with the search ads business; DuckDuckDeal could do a similar thing with focused promotions!
Unlike the various coupon/deal sites already available, the key distinguishing feature here is that the merchants have the ability to post an ad-hoc offer with a limited time. This feature allows business establishments to figure out by trial and error which offers elicit best response, and thereby alter their offerings.
DuckDuckDeal has a huge potential for growth as it provides a simple mechanism for businesses of all sizes - especially in the service and food & beverage industry - to fine-tune their businesses with minimal expense. The company is currently operational only in Boulder, and are perfecting the business model before they expand to other areas.
I think DuckDuckDeal has the potential to be the next big thing. Google created an enormous money making machine with the search ads business; DuckDuckDeal could do a similar thing with focused promotions!
One feature every iPhone/Smartphone app should have. Twitbird has it
Monday, March 15, 2010
1 comments
I spend a significant amount of time reading on my iPhone just before going to sleep at night, or on a lazy weekend afternoon. The iPhone's ability to switch from Portrait to Landscape - while very useful in other circumstances - is a pain while prone on the bed, forcing me to keep my neck at an unnatural angle to read the text.
I am not the only one who has this peculiar problem; I remember Robert Scoble had tweeted about the same problem at the time iPhone was introduced in 2007.
I am not the only one who has this peculiar problem; I remember Robert Scoble had tweeted about the same problem at the time iPhone was introduced in 2007.
Having been conditioned to get used to this uncomfortable state of affairs by the various iPhone native functionality and iPhone apps that I have used in the last couple of years, I was pleasantly surprised to see NibiruTech's twitter iPhone app TwitBird have a very simple feature to lock the screen in Portrait or Landscape. When I move the iPhone from Portrait to Landscape, a small button appears in the middle of the screen for a few seconds; pressing on that button locks or unlocks the screen in that display mode.
Genius! Yet very simple! My neck says "Thank you very much, Twitbird!" Now if only everything on iPhone - the native functionality and apps - have this functionality.
Here are a few screen-shots with the feature: First one is the locked mode; the second one is the unlocked mode.
The world can be divided into two parts - first is the fortunate ones who love Flight of the Concords (FOTC), and the second is the not-so-fortunate ones who are blissfully unaware of FOTC's existence. This post is for the second set of people. You are welcome, folks ;-)
Met this guy in the pic today at a play in NYC, and remembered having seen him in a FOTC video, and that led to the blog post.If you have absolutely no clue about who/what FOTC is/are - or if you just want to relive the pleasures of watching FOTC, click through the following links to YouTube and enjoy the videos! (Also, most of these videos have the lyrics in the info section - adds to the fun!)
- Leggy Blonde - the video in which I remember seeing this guy.
- She's so hot boom - "She's like a curry" :-)
- Business Time - Wednesdays!
- If you are into it - The best part is when the girl says thank you!
- Jenny - not on the HBO show; one of their best songs!
- Hiphopopotamus vs Rhymenoceros - The song through which I got to know of FOTC
- Carol Brown / Girlfriends from the past - Painfully hilarious
- Humans are dead - the unplugged version is better than the one from the HBO show
- Most beautiful girl (in the room) - from David Letterman show
- Cheer up Murray - "You look a little sad, your life ain't so bad"
- Bret's angry dance - Reminds me of many Indian movies
- Friends - Sweet song
Digged around the internet a bit to learn about belly fat and how to lose it, and the biggest learning point for me was "Just because my father had a huge paunch for as long as I can remember, it does not mean I should have one too" :-)
A couple of useful articles - one on WebMD site, one on Mayo Clinic site give me confidence about being able to lose my small yet noticeable pot belly - something I have taken for granted as an impossible task all my life!
The theory behind the growth of belly fat in men is very simple: Excess fat taken in via food and not burnt up gets stored in the belly area. That is it; as simple as that. The way to lose it is simple as well: As men work on losing weight, the first place the fat disappears is in the tummy area! Can't ask for a better mechanism ;-)
From a personal perspective, I see I can aim to completely flatten my tummy in 2-3 months time with the kind of exercise and diet control plans I have already taken on.
I have been working on a regular and consistent fitness schedule for the last two months - strength training using iPhone apps (for 100pushups, 200situps and 200squats) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and running/cardio training on Tuesday, Wednesday and one of the Weekend days. The intensity of the workout determines the amount of calories burnt, and consequently the amount of weight lost. Now that my goal is to increase my running speed and cut down on my 5K time, the intensity of my workouts is increasing.
The other big part of this effort is portion control - something I can blame my parents for not teaching me when I was younger ;-) I am taking on making a conscious effort to limit the amount of food I eat, mostly based on a rule of thumb estimate.
In this context, I was laughing at recognizing myself in funnyoneliners' recent tweet:
A couple of useful articles - one on WebMD site, one on Mayo Clinic site give me confidence about being able to lose my small yet noticeable pot belly - something I have taken for granted as an impossible task all my life!
The theory behind the growth of belly fat in men is very simple: Excess fat taken in via food and not burnt up gets stored in the belly area. That is it; as simple as that. The way to lose it is simple as well: As men work on losing weight, the first place the fat disappears is in the tummy area! Can't ask for a better mechanism ;-)
From a personal perspective, I see I can aim to completely flatten my tummy in 2-3 months time with the kind of exercise and diet control plans I have already taken on.
I have been working on a regular and consistent fitness schedule for the last two months - strength training using iPhone apps (for 100pushups, 200situps and 200squats) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and running/cardio training on Tuesday, Wednesday and one of the Weekend days. The intensity of the workout determines the amount of calories burnt, and consequently the amount of weight lost. Now that my goal is to increase my running speed and cut down on my 5K time, the intensity of my workouts is increasing.
The other big part of this effort is portion control - something I can blame my parents for not teaching me when I was younger ;-) I am taking on making a conscious effort to limit the amount of food I eat, mostly based on a rule of thumb estimate.
In this context, I was laughing at recognizing myself in funnyoneliners' recent tweet:
I really need to hit the treadmill tonight after eating so poorly today and yesterday and the last 25 years.Bye bye little pot belly; you will be missed!
